Unofficial English translation of Statutes of FREEDOM FOR EURASIA (original in German)

Sec­tion 1: Name, registered office and area of activity

•    The asso­ci­ation’s offi­cial name is “FREIHEIT FÜR EURASIEN”(English:  ” FREEDOM FOR EURASIA”, Rus­si­an: “СВОБОДА ЕВРАЗИИ”.

• It is based in Aus­tria,  and works internationally.

• The estab­lish­ment of branch asso­ci­ations is possible.

Sec­tion 2: Purpose

The asso­ci­ation ” FREEDOMFOR EURASIA” (eng. ” FREEDOM FOR EURASIA)“is a polit­ic­ally and reli­giously inde­pend­ent non-gov­ern­ment­al human rights organ­iz­a­tion whose activ­ity is not aimed at profit. Its  pur­pose is to inform the  inter­na­tion­al com­munity  of the observ­ance of fun­da­ment­al  civil  and polit­ic­al  rights in the Euras­ia region, to mon­it­or the actions of gov­ern­ments and to assess wheth­er gov­ern­ments  are com­ply­ing withthe coun­try’s inter­na­tion­al oblig­a­tions,  in par­tic­u­lar with regard to human rights.  The pur­pose of the asso­ci­ation is alsoto edu­cate­about  rights and cur­rent human­rights viol­a­tions, to stand up  for  the observ­ance of human right­sand the vic­tims of human rights viol­a­tions,  and to sup­port loc­al  and  region­al act­iv­ists and  organ­iz­a­tions  for  the observ­ance of human rights.  In order to sup­port these pur­poses, fin­an­cial resources will also be raised through donations.

The organ­iz­a­tion is based in Aus­tria and oper­ates internationally

Sec­tion 3: Means of achiev­ing the pur­pose of the association

• The pur­pose of the asso­ci­ation is to be achieved by the ideal and mater­i­al means referred to in para­graphs 2 and 3.

• Serve as an ideal means

1. Ana­lys­is of viol­a­tions by state bod­ies and civil ser­vants against citizens.
2. Dir­ectly with gov­ern­ments and decision-makers and through pub­lic campaigns.
3. Sup­port and expertise.
4. Train­ing, trans­fer of  know-how  and  organ­isa­tion­ser­vices should be  provided by  loca­land human rights activists.
5. Research and invest­ig­at­ive activ­it­ies to com­bat cor­rup­tion and pro­mote the rule of law in the region

• The neces­sary mater­i­al resources are to be raised by:

1. Mem­ber­ship fees and mem­ber­ship fees
2. Grants  from  donor organisations
3. Dona­tions.

Sec­tion 4: Types of membership

• The mem­bers of the asso­ci­ation are divided into ordin­ary, extraordin­ary and hon­or­ary members.

• Ordin­ary mem­bers are those who par­ti­cip­ate fully in the work of the asso­ci­ation. Extraordin­ary mem­bers are those who pro­mote the asso­ci­ation’s activ­it­ies primar­ily by pay­ing an increased mem­ber­ship fee. Hon­or­ary mem­bers are per­sons who are appoin­ted for  spe­cial ser­vices to the association.

Sec­tion 5: Acquis­i­tion of membership

• Mem­bers of the Asso­ci­ation may become any phys­ic­al per­son who sup­ports the pur­pose and val­ues of the organ­iz­a­tion and the val­ues of inter­na­tion­al human rights treat­ies and is will­ing to work for these purposes.

• The Board of Dir­ect­ors decides on the admis­sion of ordin­ary and extraordin­ary mem­bers. Admis­sion may be refused without giv­ing reasons.

• Until the form­a­tion of the asso­ci­ation, the pro­vi­sion­al admis­sion of ordin­ary and extraordin­ary mem­bers is car­ried out by the founders of the asso­ci­ation, in the case of an already appoin­ted board of dir­ect­ors by the asso­ci­ation. This mem­ber­ship only takes effect with the form­a­tion of the asso­ci­ation. If a board is appoin­ted only after the form­a­tion of the asso­ci­ation, the (defin­it­ive) admis­sion of ordin­ary and extraordin­ary mem­bers until then by the founders of the asso­ci­ation takes place.

• The appoint­ment as an hon­or­ary mem­ber shall be made at the request of the Exec­ut­ive Board by the Annu­al Gen­er­al Meeting.

Sec­tion 6: Ter­min­a­tion of membership

• Mem­ber­ship expires by death, in the case of leg­al per­sons and leg­al part­ner­ships, by loss of leg­al per­son­al­ity, by vol­un­tary with­draw­al and by exclusion.

• The resig­na­tion must be noti­fied to the Exec­ut­ive Board in writ­ing at least one  month in advance. If the noti­fic­a­tion is delayed, it will not take effect until the next with­draw­al date. The date of the postal task is decis­ive for timeliness.

• The Board of Dir­ect­ors may exclude a mem­ber if, des­pite a writ­ten warn­ing twice, the mem­ber is in arrears for more than six months with the pay­ment of the mem­ber­ship fees, sub­ject to a reas­on­able grace peri­od. This does not affect the oblig­a­tion to pay the mem­ber­ship fees that have become due.

• The exclu­sion of a mem­ber from the asso­ci­ation may also be ordered by the Board of Dir­ect­ors for gross viol­a­tion of oth­er mem­ber oblig­a­tions and for dis­hon­or­able conduct.

• The with­draw­al of hon­or­ary mem­ber­ship may be decided by the Gen­er­al Meet­ing on request of the Board of Dir­ect­ors for the reas­ons set out in para­graph 4.

Sec­tion 7: Mem­bers’ Rights and Obligations

• The mem­bers are entitled to par­ti­cip­ate in all events of the asso­ci­ation and to claim the facil­it­ies of the asso­ci­ation. Vot­ing rights in the Gen­er­al Assembly as well as the right to vote and stand as a can­did­ate are only avail­able to ordin­ary and hon­or­ary members.

• Each mem­ber is entitled to require the Exec­ut­ive Board to com­ply with the Art­icles of Association.

• At least one tenth of the mem­bers may require the Board of Dir­ect­ors to con­vene a Gen­er­al Meeting.

• The mem­bers are to be informed at each gen­er­al meet­ing by the Board of Dir­ect­ors about the activ­it­ies and fin­an­cial situ­ation of the asso­ci­ation. If at least one tenth of the mem­bers so request, stat­ing reas­ons, the Board of Dir­ect­ors shall also provide such inform­a­tion to the mem­bers con­cerned with­in four weeks.

• The mem­bers must be informed by the Exec­ut­ive Board about the audited clear­ance of accounts (account­ing). If this is done in the Annu­al Gen­er­al Meet­ing, the aud­it­ors shall be involved.

• The mem­bers are obliged to pro­mote the interests of the asso­ci­ation to the best of their abil­ity and to refrain from any­thing that could des­troy the repu­ta­tion and pur­pose of the asso­ci­ation. They must observe the stat­utes of the asso­ci­ation and the decisions of the asso­ci­ation bod­ies. The ordin­ary and extraordin­ary mem­bers are obliged to pay the mem­ber­ship fee and mem­ber­ship fees on time at the amount decided by the Gen­er­al Assembly.

Sec­tion 8: Asso­ci­ation bodies

The organs of the asso­ci­ation are the Gen­er­al Meet­ing (Sec­tions 9 and 10), the Board of Dir­ect­ors (Sec­tions 11 to 13), the aud­it­ors (Sec­tions 14) and the arbit­ral tribunal (Sec­tions 15).

Sec­tion 9: Annu­al Gen­er­al Meeting

• The Gen­er­al Assembly is the “Gen­er­al Assembly” with­in the mean­ing of the Asso­ci­ation Act 2002. An annu­al annu­al gen­er­al meet­ing is held.

• An extraordin­ary Gen­er­al Meet­ing will take place at

1. Res­ol­u­tion of the Board of Dir­ect­ors or the Annu­al Gen­er­al Meeting,
2. writ­ten request from at least one tenth of the members,
3. Request of the aud­it­ors (Sec­tion 21 (5) first sen­tence of VereinsG),
4. Decision of the/s auditor/s (Sec­tion 21 (5) second sen­tence Ver­einsG, sec­tion 11 (2) third sen­tence of these statutes),
5. Decision of a court-appoin­ted cur­at­or (Sec­tion 11(2) last sen­tence of these Statutes)

with­in four weeks.

• All mem­bers must be invited to the ordin­ary and extraordin­ary gen­er­al meet­ings at least two weeks before the date in writ­ing, by fax or by e‑mail (to the fax num­ber or e‑mail address provided by the mem­ber to the asso­ci­ation). The meet­ing of the Gen­er­al Assembly shall be made with an indic­a­tion of the agenda. The con­ven­ing is car­ried out by the Board of Dir­ect­ors (para­graph 1 and para­graph 2 lit. a – c), by the aud­it­or (para­graph 2  lit. d) or by a court-appoin­ted cur­at­or (para­graph 2  lit. e).

• Pro­pos­als for the Annu­al Gen­er­al Meet­ing must be sub­mit­ted to the Board of Dir­ect­ors in writ­ing, by fax or by e‑mail at least three days before the date of the Annu­al Gen­er­al Meeting.

• Val­id decisions, with the excep­tion of those relat­ing to a request for the con­ven­ing of an extraordin­ary gen­er­al meet­ing, can only be taken on the agenda.

• All mem­bers are entitled to par­ti­cip­ate in the Gen­er­al Assembly. Only the ordin­ary and the hon­or­ary mem­bers are entitled to vote. Each mem­ber has one vote. The trans­fer of vot­ing rights to anoth­er mem­ber by means of a writ­ten author­isa­tion is permitted.

• The Gen­er­al Assembly has a quor­um regard­less of the num­ber of people who have appeared.

• Elec­tions and res­ol­u­tions in the Gen­er­al Assembly are usu­ally held by a simple major­ity of the val­id votes cast. How­ever, decisions to amend the stat­ute of the asso­ci­ation or to dis­solve the asso­ci­ation require a qual­i­fied major­ity of two-thirds of the val­id votes cast.

• The Gen­er­al Assembly is chaired bytheChairman/Chairwoman, in whose pre­ven­tion his/e/her/e deputy. Although this is also pre­ven­ted, the old­est mem­ber of the Board of Man­age­ment present in years presides.

Sec­tion 10: Tasks of the Gen­er­al Assembly

The fol­low­ing tasks are reserved for the Gen­er­al Meeting:

1. decision on the estimate;
2. receipt and approv­al of the account­ab­il­ity report and the clear­ance of accounts, involving the auditors;
3. elec­tion and dis­missal of the mem­bers of the Board of Dir­ect­ors and auditors;
4. Approv­al of leg­al trans­ac­tions between aud­it­ors and the association;
5. Dis­charge of the Exec­ut­ive Board;
6. fix­ing the amount of the mem­ber­ship fee and mem­ber­ship fees for ordin­ary and extraordin­ary members;
7. Award­ing and with­draw­ing hon­or­ary membership;
8. Res­ol­u­tion on amend­ments to the Art­icles of Asso­ci­ation and the vol­un­tary dis­sol­u­tion of the association;
9. Advice and decision-mak­ing on oth­er issues on the agenda.

Sec­tion 11: Board of Directors

• The Exec­ut­ive Board con­sists of six mem­bers, namely chairman/chairwoman and deputy, sec­ret­ary and deputy, as well as cash­ier and deputy.

• The Board of Dir­ect­ors is elec­ted by the Gen­er­al Meet­ing of The Board of Dir­ect­ors. In the event of the resig­na­tion of an elec­ted mem­ber, the Exec­ut­ive Board has the right to co-opt anoth­er elect­able mem­ber in his place, for which sub­sequent approv­al must be obtained at the next Gen­er­al Meet­ing. If the Board of Dir­ect­ors fails without self-addi­tion by co-opt­ing at all  or for an unpre­dict­ably long time, each aud­it­or is obliged to con­vene an extraordin­ary gen­er­al meet­ing imme­di­ately for the pur­pose of re-elect­ing a board of dir­ect­ors. Should the aud­it­ors also be inca­pa­cit­ated, any ordin­ary mem­ber who recog­nises the emer­gency situ­ation must imme­di­ately request the appoint­ment of a cur­at­or to the com­pet­ent court, who must imme­di­ately con­vene an extraordin­ary gen­er­al meeting.

• The term of office of the Exec­ut­ive Board is two years; Re-elec­tion is pos­sible. Every func­tion on the Board of Dir­ect­ors must be exer­cised personally.

• The Board of Dir­ect­ors shall be con­vened by the Chair­man of the Board of Super­visors, in writ­ing or orally, if pre­ven­ted by his/her deputy. If this is also pre­ven­ted for an unpre­dict­ably long time, any oth­er mem­ber of the Board of Man­age­ment may con­vene the Board of Management.

• The Board of Dir­ect­ors shall have a quor­um if all its mem­bers have been invited and at least half of them are present.

• The Board of Dir­ect­ors shall take its decisions by a simple major­ity of votes; in the event of a tie, the vote of the chair­man shall be decisive.

• The chairman/chairwoman presides over the event of his/e/her/e deputy being pre­ven­ted from doing so. If this is also pre­ven­ted, the chair­man­ship is the respons­ib­il­ity of the old­est mem­ber of the Board of Man­age­ment present in years or of the mem­ber of the Board of Man­age­ment, whom the oth­er mem­bers of the Board of Man­age­ment determ­ine by a majority.

• Except through the death and expiry of the term of office (para­graph 3), the func­tion of a mem­ber of the Board of Man­age­ment ceases to func­tion by dis­missal (para­graph 9) and resig­na­tion (para­graph 10).

• The Annu­al Gen­er­al Meet­ing may at any time remove the entire Board of Dir­ect­ors or indi­vidu­al mem­bers of its mem­bers. The dis­missal takes effect with the appoint­ment of the new Exec­ut­ive Board member. 

• The mem­bers of the Board of Man­age­ment may declare their resig­na­tion in writ­ing at any time. The resig­na­tion shall be addressed to the Exec­ut­ive Board in the event of the resig­na­tion of the entire Exec­ut­ive Board to the Annu­al Gen­er­al Meet­ing. The resig­na­tion shall only take effect with the elec­tion or co-opt­a­tion (para­graph 2) of a successor.

Sec­tion 12: Tasks of the Board of Management

The board is respons­ible for the man­age­ment of the asso­ci­ation. It is the “gov­ern­ing body” with­in the mean­ing of the Asso­ci­ation Act 2002. He is assigned all tasks that are not assigned to anoth­er asso­ci­ation body by the stat­utes. In par­tic­u­lar, it cov­ers the fol­low­ing matters:

• estab­lish­ment of an account­ing sys­tem in accord­ance with the require­ments of the asso­ci­ation, with an ongo­ing record of the revenue/expenditure and the keep­ing of a list of assets as a min­im­um requirement;
• pre­par­a­tion of the annu­al estim­ate, the account­ab­il­ity report and the clear­ance of accounts;
• Pre­par­a­tion and con­ven­ing of the Gen­er­al Assembly in the cases of Sec­tion 9 (1) and (2) lit. a – c of these Art­iclesof Association;
• inform­a­tion to the mem­bers of the asso­ci­ation about the activ­it­ies of the asso­ci­ation, the asso­ci­ation’s activ­it­ies and the audited clear­ance of accounts;
• man­age­ment of the asso­ci­ation’s assets;
• admis­sion and exclu­sion of ordin­ary and extraordin­ary mem­bers of the association;
• Admis­sion and ter­min­a­tion of employ­ees of the association.

Sec­tion 13: Spe­cial con­di­tions of indi­vidu­al mem­bers of the Board of Management

• The chairman/chairwoman man­ages the day-to-day busi­ness of the asso­ci­ation. The sec­ret­ary sup­ports thechairman/obfrau in the man­age­ment of the asso­ci­ation business.

• The chairman/chairwoman rep­res­ents the asso­ci­ation to the out­side world. Writ­ten cop­ies of the asso­ci­ation must beval­id for the sig­na­tures of thechairman/chairwoman and the secretary/secretary, in mon­et­ary mat­ters (asset dis­pos­i­tions) of the chairman/chairwoman and the cash­ier. Leg­al trans­ac­tions between mem­bers of the Board of Man­age­ment and the Asso­ci­ation require the approv­al of anoth­er mem­ber of the Board of Management.

• Leg­al author­iz­a­tions to rep­res­ent the asso­ci­ation to the out­side world or to sign it for it can only be gran­ted by the mem­bers of the Board of Man­age­ment men­tioned in para­graph 2.

• In the event of danger in default, the chair­manis entitled to make inde­pend­ent orders under hisown respons­ib­il­ity, even in mat­ters that fall with­in the scope of the Gen­er­al Meet­ing or the Board of Man­age­ment; in the intern­al rela­tion­ship, how­ever, these require sub­sequent approv­al by the com­pet­ent asso­ci­ation body.

• The chairman/chairwoman presides over the Gen­er­al Assembly and the Board of Directors.

• The sec­ret­ary keeps the minutes of the Gen­er­al Meet­ing and the Board of Directors.

• The cash­ier is respons­ible for the prop­er pay­ment of money of the association.

• In the event of pre­ven­tion, the deputy shall replace the chairman/chairwoman, the sec­ret­ary or the  cashier.

Sec­tion 14: Auditor

• Two aud­it­ors are elec­ted by the Gen­er­al Assembly for a peri­od of two  years. Re-elec­tion is pos­sible. The aud­it­ors may not belong to any body, with the excep­tion of the Gen­er­al Assembly, whose activ­it­ies are the sub­ject of the audit.

• The aud­it­ors are respons­ible for the ongo­ing audit of the busi­ness and the audit of the fin­an­cial man­age­ment of the asso­ci­ation with regard to the reg­u­lar­ity of the accounts and the use of the funds in accord­ance with the stat­utes. The Man­age­ment Board shall provide the aud­it­ors with the neces­sary doc­u­ments and the neces­sary inform­a­tion. The aud­it­ors must report to the Man­age­ment Board on the res­ults of the audit.

• Leg­al trans­ac­tions between aud­it­ors and the asso­ci­ation require approv­al by the Gen­er­al Meet­ing. In addi­tion, the pro­vi­sions of Sec­tions 11 (8) to 10 apply to the aud­it­ors by analogy.

Sec­tion 15: Arbitration

• The intern­al arbit­ral tribunal is called upon to settle all dis­putes arising from the asso­ci­ation rela­tion­ship. It is a “con­cili­ation insti­tu­tion” with­in the mean­ing of the Asso­ci­ation Act 2002 and is not an arbit­ral tribunal in accord­ance with Sec­tions 577 ff ZPO.

• The arbit­ral tribunal is com­posed of three ordin­ary mem­bers of the asso­ci­ation. It is formed in such a way that a part of the dis­pute shall make a mem­ber of the Board of Dir­ect­ors a mem­ber a writ­ten arbit­rat­or. Upon request by the Board of Dir­ect­ors with­in sev­en days, the oth­er part of the dis­pute shall, on its part, nom­in­ate a mem­ber of the arbit­ral tribunal with­in 14 days. After agree­ment by the Board of Dir­ect­ors with­in sev­en days, the appoin­ted arbit­rat­ors shall elect a third full mem­ber as Chair­man of the Arbit­ral Tribunal with­in a fur­ther 14 days. In the event of a tie, the lot shall be decided among the pro­posed parties. The mem­bers of the arbit­ral tribunal may not belong to any body, with the excep­tion of the Gen­er­al Assembly, whose activ­it­ies are the sub­ject of the dispute.

• The arbit­ral tribunal shall make its decision after the hear­ing of both parties in the pres­ence of all its mem­bers by a simple major­ity of votes. It decides to the best of its know­ledge and belief. His decisions are final with­in the club.

Sec­tion 16: Vol­un­tary dis­sol­u­tion of the association

• The vol­un­tary dis­sol­u­tion of the asso­ci­ation can only be decided in a gen­er­al assembly and only with a two-thirds major­ity of the val­id votes cast.
• This gen­er­al assembly also has to decide on the liquid­a­tion — provided that the asso­ci­ation’s assets are avail­able. In par­tic­u­lar, it has to appoint a liquid­at­or and take a decision to whom he has to trans­fer the remain­ing club assets after cov­er­ing the liabilities.
• If the asso­ci­ation is dis­solved or annulled or if the pre­vi­ously val­id bene­fi­cial asso­ci­ation pur­pose no longer applies, the remain­ing asso­ci­ation assets are to be used for non-profit, char­it­able pur­poses or church pur­poses with­in the mean­ing of §§ 34 BAO. As far as pos­sible and per­mit­ted, it should fall to insti­tu­tions that pur­sue the same or sim­il­ar pur­poses as this asso­ci­ation. If there is a bene­fit in accord­ance with § 4a EstG, the remain­ing assets of the asso­ci­ation must be trans­ferred to an insti­tu­tion that also has a bene­fit in accord­ance with § 4a EstG.
• The last asso­ci­ation board has to noti­fy the respons­ible asso­ci­ation author­ity in writ­ing of a vol­un­tary dis­sol­u­tion with­in four weeks after the decision has been made.